Hot Dish Review

Too many Guinness draughts on St. Patty’s Day? Try hair of the Irish dog!

When it comes to world cuisine, Irish is quite likely the one I crave the least. Not a fan of corned beef or fish ‘n’ chips. I’ve never been tempted to try shepherd’s pie or Irish stew. So, when I was asked to write about Brookhaven’s new Irish pub, Olde Blind Dog, I wasn’t drooling like one.

Like stepping into an Celtic theme park, Olde Blind Dog’s owners spared no expense with the decor, importing antique mirrors and intricately carved wood accents from Europe, and creating kitschy elements like windows with faux plants, and “sidewalks” complete with street signs. The centerpiece is a multi-level seating area, with secluded booths called “snugs”, effectively dividing the boisterous bar from the cozy little tables, some of them nestled beneath the stairs, giving guests a wee bit of privacy. BB likened it to Fado on steroids….LOL.

Someone involved in this operation is a marketing genius. The menu is designed to look like an old newspaper called the Daily Dog, featuring the story of the old blind dog himself. A good bit of wit is used to describe the authentic Irish dishes, as well as some more unusual selections like the Celtic Curry.

On the rare occassion I go to an Irish pub, I invariably have an Irish car bomb, a half pint of Guinness with a shot of Jameson’s and Bailey’s dropped in. It has a rich, chocolately flavor. That’s how LC and I started our visit, then promptly ordered a sampling of their best-selling appetizers: tabasco fried pickles, ale and cheddar dip, and a fish slider.

The staff is so well-trained it was impossible to know the place had only been open a week. Service was brisk and enthusiastic. Our awesome server, Martin, said it was quite a challenge to separate the draught line for the Guinness from the other beers, as it was necessary to serve it at 42 degrees rather than the standard American 38 degrees like the other selections. I was impressed. Equally impressive is the fact they make their corned beef in house daily, as well as all of their desserts. Fries and chips are freshly cut, nothing comes in frozen.

We enjoyed pieces of pretzel bread dipped in their signature ale and cheddar dip. When the bread was gone, LC cleaned the bowl out with his finger. He also loves pickles. Deep fry ‘em with a spicy batter and you have a winner. Flaky cod was beer battered on a baby bun with tartar sauce for dipping.

I wanted to try some traditional Irish fare, so I ordered the bangers and mash for my entree. LC went along and tried the corned beef and beer braised cabbage. The presentation was awesome….a mountain of mashed potatoes drizzled with brown gravy surrounded by three grilled sausages, then topped with crispy fried onions. Texturally pleasing and enough to feed a lumberjack.

LC’s dish was a solid interpretation of a classic. A wedge of vinegary cabbage was a perfect compliment to the dense yet inexplicably tender chunks of corned beef. Stewed potatoes and carrots rounded out the plate. The meat was even better the next morning mixed in scrambled eggs, topped with melted cheddar, served with English muffins. Can you believe I actually ate the leftovers?

We ate about a third of our dinner, had it boxed up, then promptly ordered dessert…a wedge of housemade bread pudding. It was studded with dried cranberries and resting in a pool of creme Anglaise. I would have preferred raisins, but it was thankfully not extemely sweet. Most of it also went in a box just to be devoured as soon as we got home.

Parking was a bit of a challenge, forcing many patrons to walk across the parking lot from the nearby Costco. Or, you may snag a spot out front if you have the luck of the Irish! The food at Olde Blind Dog is hearty. And salty. But if you crave Irish food, you’ll freakin’ love it.

705 Town Boulevard 404-816-5739

Patience is a virtue I lack. Or, perhaps I am simply efficient. When I shop I can cover a department store in under 20 minutes. I’m in and out of the grocery store in a flash. And, my disdain for the suburbs is legendary. So spending over two hours at Kohl’s in Alpharetta recently was less than ideal.

Later, I accompanied LC to the neighborhood AT & T store, after which we went in search of an afternoon snack. We passed one strip mall after another, each anchored by a pasteurized, homogenized big-box retailer….Costco, Walmart, Target, Home Depot. Alpharetta’s got ‘em all.

Ditto for restaurant chains that surround them. After thirty minutes of driving around, I didn’t see even one independently owned, non-franchise restaurant. We settled for Hudson Grille, a local sportsbar chain with four locations in the Atlanta area, owned by Metrotainment who’s holdings also include Garrison’s, Einstein’s, and Cowtippers.

It was almost warm enough to sit outside, but alas, we couldn’t see the big screen due to the sun’s glare, so we moved inside where we were surrounded by multipled big screens, each showing a different college basketball game. At this point, I was in need of an alcoholic beverage.

Hudson Grille offers your typical sportsbar fare with a good amount of Texican dishes much like Taco Mac. As a rule, I usually don’t order tacos unless I’m at a Mexican restaurant, but our server did such a great job she almost sold me on their chicken tacos. Unfortunately, we had tacos the night before so I ordered sliders and LC went with his standard hot wings, and we shared a side of onion rings.

Although they were topped with caramelized onions and pepper jack, the sliders didn’t deliver much flavor. Perhaps it was the proportion of bread to meat….about 90/10. Honestly, Krystals are much better. Onion rings were good and crispy, but LC was disappointed with the lack of spice on his hot wings. To their credit, they serve the wings with high quality chunky blue cheese dressing for dipping the traditional celery sticks.

Our experience at Hudson Grille was not a bad one. The service was excellent (and efficient!) and they have an absurd amount of flat screen TV’s which would be great for March madness. But at the end of the day, it’s your typical sports bar, set in the suburban sprawl of Alpharetta.

865 North Main Street 770-777-4127

You know how much I love the burbs. Working on the weekend in Kennesaw? Double the fun.

After a few hours of setting up a trade show display at a school on a recent Sunday, LC and I stopped by Keegan’s Public House for a bite and a brew before heading to (I kid you not) the office for more work.

Pubs are usually also sports bars, so LC’s alterior motive was to watch the end of the Falcons game. But their TV’s were placed where they were hard to see from the booths, and the bar was full of patrons.

We sat in a booth anyway and ordered two Irish car bombs, shots of Baileys and Jameson’s that are dropped into half pints of Guinness draft, then quickly consumed. My unfortunate introduction to this concoction (5 of them) resulted in my car keys being locked in my office on Christmas Eve some years ago, but that’s another story.

Today, just one car bomb would erase the last few hours and smooth out our jangled nerves. But our break time was short and food was in order. LC and I often share things, so we tried the appetizer sampler, heart disease on a platter, including 2 beef sliders, 5 hot wings, and 2 Irish Spring rolls. I tried to counteract the cholesterol with their spinach salad topped with Granny Smith apples, candied walnuts, and blue cheese, but the dressing was pure bacon grease.

Wings and blue cheese were not extraordinary….we would have liked them spicier, but it was the meager serving of celery that baffled me. Isn’t celery cheap? Can I have more than 2 tiny slivers? The fatty beef sliders were topped with melted cheese and grilled onions….delicious. I thought the Irish Spring rolls were clever, made with corned beef, cabbage, and Swiss cheese wrapped in wontons and fried, of course. Thousand island dipping sauce added to the caloric nightmare.

Other selections were standard Irish fare….shepherd’s pie, bangers and mash, fish ‘n’ chips. Another Guinness for me before we hit the road, our bellies full.

1625 Ridenhour Blvd, Kennesaw 678-213-2461

While in Orlando, LC and I dined at a cozy spot on the main drag called Brick House Tavern and Tap. Flattering lighting and a modern rustic decor made it the perfect choice for a casual date night. We settled into a booth next to the fireplace.

Not sure how I missed the overt sexual innuendo on the menu during our visit, only discovering it while reviewing our choices for this post. Items like “three-way chicken wings” and “submissive baked potato soup” make me wonder who thought this was a good idea….and why. I also discovered that the restaurant is part of a chain, with 15 locations from Texas to Florida. I liked the place a whole lot more before I knew that bit of info.

Having eaten at Brick House a few weeks before on a business trip, LC knew I’d love the deviled eggs topped with crispy bacon and roasted jalapenos to start, so we ordered them along with a couple of drinks. That’s when we got the bad news: they were out of bacon. Checking out the entire menu, I noticed that many dishes contained bacon, from the mac ‘n’ cheese to the “bad boy chopped salad”. How the f*ck can you run out of bacon when your entire menu depends on it?

We ordered the deviled eggs anyway, which arrived unadorned, save for a sprinkling of cayenne. I guess without the bacon we wouldn’t want the jalapenos? LC asked our server to bring them. The eggs were good but disappointing without the bacon.

Like all taverns and taps, Brick House offers a large selection of specialty and import beers with twenty served on draught. Man-sized burgers and sandwiches compete with ladylike dishes like “zucchini curls” or the “good girl Caesar salad”.

As we often do, LC and I chose a few items to share. Silver dollar burger sliders were thick and juicy, topped with balsamic caramelized onions and gooey melted cheese. Soft buns were the final component that made these sliders exceptionally delicious.

If she ever was a brick house, she wouldn’t stay that way for long eating stuff like the “big onion stack”. LC demonstrated how it was one continuous piece of greasy, battered onion. I blotted them with my napkin to no avail. Did we stop eating them? No sir!

For a lighter dish we tried the “beefed up steak salad”. Grilled pieces of tenderloin were flavorful paired with grilled red onions. Although not listed, the salad was garnished with tomato wedges and candied walnuts. Creamy balsamic finished the fresh greens.

Desserts are called “happy endings”, of course. We were too full to indulge, but when we got back to our lovely resort we had worked up an appetite for “pleasure pie”.

Sorry, just couldn’t resist.

8440 International Drive, Orlando 407-355-0321

Rather than the leisurely dining experience we had planned on prior to Cirque du Soleil, several unfortunate incidents forced me and LC to rush to get a bite to eat instead.

Once at Atlantic Station, we ran into the closest place that served food, the Fox Sports Grill. With a mere thirty minutes to order and eat, we quickly requested two beers.

LC’s default is set on chicken wings and mine is usually burgers so their appetizer combo that included both was an easy choice. Two kobe sliders with caramelized onions and garlic mayo, two Buffalo chicken sliders, six Buffalo wings with celery and blue cheese, and a stack of thick-cut onion rings.

When our beers came LC made a brilliant executive decision. Two lemon drops, please. Cheers!

Food came in five minutes flat. In my haste, I failed to add cheese to the sliders, however, they still hit the spot. The batter on the onion rings was quite thick, falling off the enormous onion slices. Wings were nothing to write home about and Buffalo tenders made into sliders were even less interesting. All in all, it was passable sports bar fare. Like all quickies, it served the purpose but was, in the end, just not very satisfying.

By the way, Cirque du Soleil’s Ovo was fantastic. It was about the magical world of insects, if insects were incredible acrobats with their own string section.

261 19th Street NW 404-207-1369

Remember back when the W Midtown first opened? The downstairs bar called The Living Room, with its patio overlooking 14th street, was the place to be seen. Everyone who was anyone made an appearance. But like so many venues in Atlanta, they go from hot to ice cold in a matter of minutes.

Fast forward a couple of years. After the Eagles concert last Friday, LC and I took a cab back to the W, the scene of the VIP pre-party earlier that evening. With reports of a line to get out of the parking deck, we decided to wait it out at the bar.

I was surprised to see the place packed, the patio full of people just chillin’. It wasn’t local trendsetters, but rather a mix of hotel guests and concert goers.

The specialty drinks were as creative, and pricey, as ever. I decided to try a grapefruit basil martini, despite my firm belief that real martinis can only be made with gin and putting any liquer into a martini glass does not make it a martini. It was an interesting cocktail, slightly sour, and decidedly herbaceous. I had two.

While sipping cocktails we debated whether to go to Krystal or get a midnight snack at the bar. I’m not sure of the hour but Spice Market had closed. Bar snacks at The Living Room are served until 1:30am, some of them small plates on the menu upstairs.

We decided to keep it simple and stay put, ordering their sliders with fries and black pepper shrimp served on a slab of pineapple. I remember the latter from a meal at Spice Market. The menu calls it sundried pineapple but it didn’t appear dried to me on either occasion. Nonetheless, the shrimp were pretty tasty, bathed in (what looks and tastes like) black bean sauce.

It is quite possible that the sliders were advertised as Kobe beef. I’m not sure but I do know they were $14 and there were only two. They were very cute to look at, but to eat? Not so cute. I believe the menu said they were topped with melted gouda and caramelized onions.

I took a bite of one of the little burgers. It was dry as the Sahara and neither of us could detect any cheese. I showed our bartender/server the cheeseless slider, with its smattering of cooked onions. Upon closer inspection, LC and I were astonished to discover the pitiful excuse for cheese after all….a once inch square (no exaggeration) so thin it was clear! The buns were equally dry, made edible only after a thick layer of mayo was applied.

Fries were very good indeed. But for the total cost of over $60, I think we would have faired better at Krystal!